


Illuminations

by megolas



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-04 05:59:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/390564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megolas/pseuds/megolas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five things about Teyla</p>
            </blockquote>





	Illuminations

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Picture is worth a 1000 words challenge, 2007.

**1.**

Teyla remembers her father's coat. It was made from the leathery hides of the Yacun they hunted in the dry season and the neck was tipped with the pelt of a Nara he'd trapped when they went hunting in the cold season.

It smelled of wood smoke, the scent of the herbs from the drying rack in their tent and something that was only him.

Teyla remembers wearing it, her arms lost halfway up the sleeves and the neck high enough to fold over her head, muffling the sounds of the adults laughing around the fire. Her father had picked her up and peeked into the makeshift hood and folded the arms up until she could hold her cup of Wasma tea, safely perched on his knees.

He was wearing it when the Wraith came.

**2.**

The Athosians are a culture with many rituals and ceremonies. Teyla can't remember not knowing them and in these times of change, she takes great comfort in them, the familiar actions and litanies slipping through her despite the changed surroundings. There are rituals to mark the changes of the seasons and rituals for celebration, for sadness, for remembrance. She brings some of the rituals with her to Atlantis and in return, the Atlantians share some of their rituals with her. They have many and they all seem to involve food. She notices that they turn to each other with these festivities, almost all of them communal and few that are personal.

Some of the rituals are familiar to her. They celebrate the change of year and Teyla stands with her team and watches the sky light up above her in ways that are reminiscent of her childhood; they have not made skylights in many a year, never wanting to risk attracting unwelcome attention. John is loose limbed and relaxed while Rodney's face shows the sort of happiness that she associates with success and explosions. Ronon grins arounds his mouthful of food and she is reminded that in some ways, he's still trapped between man and child. Rodney yells something about the ancient Chinese over the noise and Teyla smiles. 

She has seen their rituals for death and remembrance; the wooden boxes draped with flags. John is tense then and Rodney uncharacteristically silent as Elizabeth reads out names. There have been so many in such a short time. They have seen the Athosians' rituals for the same. Rodney's unexpected gentleness still touches her when she remembers the concentration he displayed as he poured the steaming tea for her on her father's remembrance day.

Teyla brings them to the Harvest and Spring feasts, the rituals of renewal and joy. And she watches as one by one they join in, dancing in the fire light. Each year, John twirls her around once, feet sure in the dances they've learnt and even Rodney tries, apologising when he steps awkwardly on her foot. She smiles and touches her forehead to his at the end. 

When the fire dies down and people start to return to their tents, she is always unsuprised to see they're the two missing from the fireside. Ronon touches her arm, fingers sliding around her wrist and she pulls the flaps of her tent closed behind them.

**3.**

As a child, Teyla was quick to anger, to lash out, a trait that she's not proud of. As she grew up, she learnt to control that anger, tamp it down until she really needs it. She replaced the urge to hit out with calmness; the ritual of meditation, candles and concentration and sparring, as an outlet for her temper. But she is not perfect and she still lashes out.

She knows she's seen as a calming influence in Atlantis and she knows that the Marines also still talk about what happened to Bates. She regrets that, a lapse of her carefully collected calm and she regrets more that she had to show that to her team. She does not regret it completely though, she would do it again at that accusation. Some things are not to be borne, regardless of who says them.

**4.**

Negotiation is a skill she has acquired over many years. Her father took her with him on trade agreements once she was old enough, always making sure that she was ready for what might come. She watched and listened and took careful note of the people they traded with; and when her father was taken, she stepped up to carry on the negotiations, no longer the girl who watched from the side but the new leader of the Athosian clan.

She brings it with her, this mind full of knowledge and practices, to Atlantis, along with her sparring skills and the rituals she carries in her head.

It has served her well over the years, Athos was respected and they traded widely; but it angers her now when they step through a gate and find old trading partners culled or enslaved or willing to sell her and her kind for a few more years scrabbling in the dirt.

**5.**

Teyla was married once. She grew up with her husband, rough tumbling around the campsites and in the ruins, playing childish games. Their families were long time friends and their betrothal had been agreed on from birth. They married eighteen years after the moon of their birth; with the traditional feast and their tent was built by everyone in the encampment, soft hides against her back and her husband warm against her as the fire cast shadows on the walls of the tent.

She was happy then for five years until the Wraith came.

Ronon, she knows, was married too. He told her once, fingers light on her skin as they lay together in her bed, his head on her chest, her fingers tucked in his hair. They were both happy until the Wraith came and while she does not feel the same encompassing feelings as she did before, this is closest she's been to that happiness since.


End file.
